
HE DEEDS OF 
OUR FATHERS. 



j^ j^ J0^ 



A Memorial Day Address delivered 
in the Town House, Dover, MassachU' 

setts. May 30, 1904 by 

FRANK SMITH 



Printed by the 

MEMORlJiL D^r COMMITTEE, 

1904. 



SOLDIERS BURIED IN DOVER CEMETERY. 



An attempt is here made to give a complete list of soldiers 
buried in Dover Cemetery. While the names of a few of the 
Revolutionary Soldiers here given cannot be found on existing 
grave stones, yet it is believed that they are buried here be- 
cause they died in the town and naturally had no other place 
of burial. 

FRENCH and INDIAN WAR. 



David Cleveland * 
Lemuel Richards * 



Thomas Larrabee * 
Daniel Whiting * 



REVOLUTIONARY WAR. 



Eleazer Allen 
Eleazer Allen Jr. 
Hezikiah Allen 
Timothy Allen 
Jeremiah Bacon 
Silas Bacon 
Jabez Baker 
Ebenezer Battle 
Ebenezer Battle, Jr. 
Hezekiah Battle 
John Battle 
Jonathan Battle 
Josiah Battle 
John Brown 
Thomas Burridge 
Samuel Cheney 
Daniel Chickering 
John Chickering 
Joseph Chickering 
Nathaniel Chickering 
Samuel Chickerinof 



Fisher Avers 
John Burrage 

George F. Miller 
John M. Brown 
Fdwin F. Gay 
William Watson 
John Demesritt 
John Frost 
William Smith 
* Also served in the 



Ralph Day 
Luke Dean 
John Draper 
James Draper 
Joseph Draper 
Josiah Draper 
John Fisher 
Samuel Fisher 
David Fuller 
James Mann 
John Mason 
Nathan Metcalf 
Abijah Richards 
Ebenezer Richards 
Richard Richards 
Ebenezer Smith 
Henry Tisdale 
Aaron Whiting 
Ephraim Wilson 
Seth Wight 



WAR of 1812. 



Samuel Fisher, Jr. 
Alexander Soule 



CIVIL WAR. 



Calvin Ayres 
Horatio Littlefield 
William H. Skimmings 
F. Russell Smith 
Ithamar Whiting 
Joseph Copeland 
James Howard 



Revolution. 



The Deeds Of Our Fathers. 



Mr. President, Members of the Grand Army and Fellow 
Citizens : I have prepared for this occasion an address out of 
the common, because I believe that lessons of patriotism, and 
loVe of Country, can best be taught here by recalling the deeds 
of valor, the acts of patriotism, and the noble sacrifices of men 
who once lived where you now live, and walked the streets 
which you now walk. 

As the physician has a deeper interest in preserving health 
than he has in curng diseases, so the soldier, although he may 
bear the scars of many battles, and though his form may be 
bent by suffering, exposure and hardship, if he is a true soldier, 
is more deeply interested in the achievements of peace than of 
war. So a study of the things which have made for peace 
through the deeds of our fathers cannot be without interest and 
value. 

When the settlers made their homes at Dedham they found 
themselves, as did all the early pioneers, exposed to new and 
peculiar dangers. The Indians still inhabited the plains and 
set their weirs in the Charles and Neponset rivers. Now the 
Indians were faithful to their friends, but vindictive and treach- 
erous to their enemies ; so when they found themselves shut 
out from their own hunting grounds, and their young warriors 
clamored for the chase, with which they had been made famil- 
iar by song and story, they grew restless and there were early 
rumors of war from hostile Indians. Under these conditions 
the settlers bethought themselves of the trainbands, of which 
they had been members-in the mother land, and proceeded to 
organize like companies for home defence. No sooner had a 
settlement been made in Dedham than a trainband was organ- 
ized. Land was set apajtfor a training field at the west end of the 
village, an area which to this day is unencroached upon, and we 
hope will ever remain as the training field of 1636 ; a spot made. 



sacred to all the ancestors of early Dover families, because here 
the settlers met for many years for weekly training, that thay 
might render the more efficient service in the protection of theii* 
own homes. 

The subject of military protection soon became one of vi- 
tal importance to the colony, and as some of the settlers had 
been members of the Honorable Artillery Company in London, 
it naturally occurred to them to establish a like company here 
•which should be a school for the officers of the trainbands, as 
■well as for officers of any other troops which might be organized 
for their defence. In 1637 the officers of the trainband, the 
magistrates, and business men in the several towns, formed a 
military association tor the training of officers with meetings 
for instruction in discipline and tactics, which greatly added to 
the safety of the colony. In 1638, this company, which was 
later known as the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company 
of Massachusetts, obtained a charter. John Johnson of Rox- 
bury, from whom your honored Postmaster, George L. Howe, 
and others of this tov/n, are descended, was the first clerk of the 
organization. Many Dedham settlers joined this company, from 
whom many residents of Dover have been decended as follows: 
Joshua Fisher, Daniel Fisher, John Plympton, Andrew Dewin, 
George Fairbanks, Anthony Fisher and Daniel Gookin. In la- 
ter years George P. Sanger and Ansel K. Tisdale, both natives 
of Dover, have been members of this Company Judge Sanger 
had the honor of being the captain of the Company in 1854. 
Of your summer residents, Capt. John S. Damrell and Charles 
S. Damrell are members, the latter having the honor of now 
holding the office of first Lieutenant in this ancient Company. 
In the spring of 1637 there was an alarm from the Indians. 
Watches and wards were ordered to be set up, and an invitation 
was sent to Capt. Cakebread, a renowned soldier of Watertown, 
to come and be at the head of military affairs in Dedham. This 
was probably a false alarm, as no further reference is made to it 
in the records, but it shows how watchful the early settlers had 
to be. 

In 1648 the residents of Dedham petititioned the General 
Court: 



"That whereas our band of Trained Soldiers, has been yet 
•deficient for want of officers established, to exercise them, and 
as we humbly conceive, that we have some among us that may 
be fit to exercise our Company, we have with one consent made 
vchoice of Eleazer Lusher for our Captain, and Joshua Fisher 
to be our Lieutenant." These offices were no sinecure as the 
trainband met as often as weekly during the entire period of 
King Philip's War. As time went on the fear of the Indians 
increased. The town of Dedham in building a school-house in 
1649 made provision for the erection of a leanto, on the west 
side of the building which was used as a watch tower. This 
addition was carried up two and a half feet higher than the 
school house, and so bronght out at a corner of the building, as 
to command a view on all sides, and here the lonely sentinel, 
guarded during the solemn watches of the night, the humble 
homes of the earlier settlers against Indian attacks. J'rom this 
tower the sentinel had a view of the plain, between the Charles 
and the Neponset rivers, and this favorable situation, together 
with the watchfulness of the settlers, saved Dedham from Indian 
attacks, while many other frontier towns were burned. In 
recalling the dangers to which the first settlers were exposed, I 
want to refer to a tragedy, which occurred on a spot probably 
familiar to you all, the Chautauqua grounds at Framingham, and 
which illustrates the peculiar perils to which our fathers were 
•exposed in their settlement in the wilderness. A few days 
previous to the first of February, 1676, Thomas Fames, left his 
home to go to Boston to obtain a guard and ammunition. Re- 
turning a few days later, and ascending a little hill near the 
present railroad bridge, "he saw by the smoke, and the slumber- 
ing fire, and the perfect silence of death, that a terrible fate 
had come to his family; the lifeless bodies of six, and the absense 
of at least four others told the entire story. The house was 
fired, by hay taken from the barn upon a rack, and the condi- 
tion of the snow all about, was evidence of the fearful struggle 
for life, and attempts to escape which had been made." 

The Pequod Indians caused great trouble to the colonies 
even in the first years of the settlement. I have found, however, 
no record of any Dedham planter who took part in this war^ 



although the town must have been represented, because in 1654,. 
it was decided to raise two hundred and seventy foot, and forty 
horsemen in the several colonies, to prosecute the Pequod War. 
The Massachusetts Colony, on account of its wealth and pop- 
ulation, was required to furnish two thirds of all the means and 
men. On the 9th of October, 1654, the Massachusetts troops 
mustered at Dedham, and the next day marched to Providence, 
and thence along the westerly shore of Narraganset Bay, to the 
Niantic country. Advantap;eous arrangements were made 
with the Pequods and the forces disbanded on the 24th of 
October, having been engaged in the service only sixteen days. 
Governor Hutchinson in his "History of the Colony of Mass- 
achusetts Bay" said: "The war with the Indians commonly 
called, Philip's War ' endangered the very being of the Colony,. 
and it was a question with some whether the Indians would not 
prevail to a total extirpation of the English inhabitants." 
King Philip was the greatest Indian of whom we have record. 
" His sagacity, shrewdness and cunning in his dealings with 
the white man is unequalled in Indian strategy. His skill in 
uniting the New England tribes, some of whom had been his 
lifelong enemies, shows a power for organization and control, 
equal, if not superior, to that of the great statesmen and war- 
riors of other races. His strong friendship, shielded many of 
his benefactors in the hour of greatest peril," When the town 
of Swansea was destroyed in 1675, King Philip sent messengers 
to inform his friends of the coming doom, and urged them to 
flee to places of safety. 

The Indians caused so much fear in 1673 that many resi- 
dents of Dedham fled to Boston. A little later a garrison was 
built, which had a keeper for several years. We have a true 
picture of the times in a description of the garrison built by 
Benjamin Bullard and George Fairbanks of Dedham (from 
whom many Dover families are descended) in their settlement, 
in 1658, in what is now Sherborn* and Millis. There were nine 
settlers in the vicinity, all of whom located their dwellings, 
with reference to natural security against the Indians. These 
settlers built their garrison on the north shore of Boggastow 
*See Moore's History, Sherborn. 



Pond in what is now Millis, It was a spacious and regular 
fortress, 65 or 70 feet long, two stories high, and built of faced 
stones. It had a double row of port holes on all four sides. 
The fortress was lighted and entered at the south overlooking 
the pond. The upper story was appropriated for the women and 
the children, and had a room partitioned off for the sick. Here 
no small number of children of the early settlers were born. Here 
In times of alarm they were accustomed to flee for more than 
two generations. In this fort they were once besieged by a host 
of King Philip's warriors, who despairing of all other means, 
attempted to fire the building by running down a declivity 
above the garrison a cart of burning flax. Arrested in its 
descent by a rock, an Indian ran down to start it. He was im* 
mediately shot and killed, after which the Indians retreated. 
The walls of this fort were standing as iate as 1785, in which 
year they were demolished. Dedham was ordered by the General 
Court i:i 1673 to prepare for war. The trainband had more 
frequent meetings, a barrel of powder and other ammunition were 
purchased, the great gun was put on wheels, and thus the town 
made ready for war. The inhabitants were encouraged to 
enlist into the troop of horse, commanded by Captain Thomas 
Prentice of Cambridge, by an offer of an abatement of their 
taxes. This was considered a great inducement as taxes were 
very high. A war assessment was levied upon the inhabitants 
of Dedham which exceeded one shilling for every pound of val- 
uation, a rate in excess of $20 on a thousand, and this simply 
for purposes of war. 

The forces of the Massachusetts Colony were mustered on 
December 10, 1675, on Dedham Plain. From this point they 
marched against the Narragansett fort. Assembled on that 
historic spot, a proclamation was made to the soldiers in the 
name of the Governor, stating that if they played the man, 
took the fort and drove the enemy out of the Narragansett coun- 
try, which was their great stronghold, they should have a gratu- 
ity of land beside their wages. In after years the soldiers were 
not forgetful of their claims, nor the Colony unmindful of the 
obligation, and so, in recognition of this promise, the town of 



8 

Westminster was set apart in 1733 as Narragansett Number 
Two. Joseph Smith, who lived here, on the Proctor place, on 
Farm Street, in 1776, was one of those who settled on this- 
grant. As Senator Hoar has said: "King Philip's plan for the 
extermination of the white man was cunningly conceived. It 
was baffled only by the heroic and advantageous courage and 
skill of men themselves disciplined by life in the forest, led by 
men trained in the great military school of which Cromwel^ 
was master." Every mother in New England must have suffered 
the agony of daily and nightly terror for herself and her child- 
ren. We realize this fact when we consider the exposure, suffer- 
ing and loss of the settlers in the neighboring town of Medfield. 
There were, it was said, ten thousand warriors organized by 
King Philip, who could issue out at any point from the forest to 
attack settlements, extending over Massachusetts, Rhode Island 
and Connecticut, a {territory which contained, all told, only 
80,000 white people. The first actual outrage in King Philip's war 
was committed in Dedham, where a white man was found dead, 
in the woods. Later, John Sausaman. the Indian schoolmaster 
at Natick, who acted as a spy upon King Philip and betrayed 
his councils, was murdered. The agency in this murder was 
directly traced to King Philip, who finding himself detected 
now began the war by an attack on Swansea. Men from Ded- 
ham took part in the bloodiest battles of this war. Twenty-one 
from this town are said to have been among Capt. Prentiss' 
troops, which made the first attack upon King Philip June 28,. 
1675. In 1676 Pomham, who next to King Philip was the most 
dreaded of Indian warriors, having sought refuge in the woods 
near Dedham, was slain by a party of Dedham and Medfield 
men, assisted by friendly Indians. 

Of those from Dedham who served in King Philip's War, 
was James Draper, who was an early settler in that part of 
Dedham which is now Dover; John Bacon who later lived on 
the Clay Brook road and settled the farm, for many years 
known as the Jonathan Perry place; John Battelle, who settled. 
the so-called Farrington farm on Main Street, and Ephraim 
Wilson, on Wilsondale street. Andrew Dewin, who for a time 
lived near Mr. Sawin's picnic grounds, was credited for military 



service in 1676. Many early Dover families were descended? 
from Jonathan Fairbanks, John Ellis, Nathaniel Richards, John 
Baker, Thomas Herring, Daniel Fuller, Daniel Wight, and 
Jeremiah Fisher, all of whom were soldiers in King Philip's 
War. The Dedham soldiers for the most part served in Capt. 
Henchman's Company. On June 26, 1675, ^^^^ company 
started on a march from Boston to Mount Hope. At Dedham 
they halted for an hour during an eclipse of the moon. In 1676 
Capt. Brattle was sent on an expedition toward Mount Hope- 
He was instructed to march to Dedham, where he was to re- 
ceive twenty soldiers from the town, with an officer, and others 
from Dorchester and Roxbury. But no record exists of this 
company. The town assumed, during this period, the respons- 
ibility of the payment of wages to the famiiies of soldiers in 
their absence. This arrangement assured prompt aid, and the 
families of the soldiers were supported without becoming a pub- 
lic charge. At the close of King Philip's War in 1676, more- 
than half of the towns in Massachusetts had been burned, and 
a tenth of all the fighting men in New England had either fallen 
in battle or been carried off captives. Thus ended the second 
and last war between the whites and the native Indians in 
southern New England, in which our fathers were engaged. 

Horace Mann uttered the truth that "Whatever you wish to 
have appear in the life of a nation must first be introduced 
into its schools." The establishment of the first free school in 
Dedham in 1644 was the one act, which above all others, has 
done most to promote the peace of the nation. Every reform 
begins as a feeling. Our Puritan and Pilgrim ancestors felt for 
many years in the motherland the need of free schools for the 
education of their children. This feeling becfinie an idea when 
they settled in New England. It was left, however, to the 
Dedham settlers, in town meeting assembled, on January ist, 
1644, to establish the first free school, to be supported by gen- 
eral taxation, v»'hich the world has ever seen. Fortunately we 
have the names of the forty-two freemen whu voted to establish 
this school. Neaily all the early Dover settlers were descend- 
ants of these men. The list includes the Chickerings, the 
Batteries, the Everetts, the Wights, the Fishers, the Gays, the 



BuUards, the Wilsons, the Colburns, the Morses, the Hichardes 
the Fairbaakses and the Metcalfs. I do not know how it is with 
others, but for myself, I am prouder of this one act of my 
Puritan ancestors, the establishment of the first free school, than 
I am of any other deed of my fathers of which I have ever 
Jearned. I believe the free public school has done more for 
the peace, prosperity and happiness of this republic than any 
lOther institution in our land. We are daily learning in this 
republic of ours, the truth of that saying uttered by Emerson : 
^* We must supercede politics by education." 

I have failed to find the record of any soldier from Dedham 
■who took part in King William's war or Queen Anne's war, but 
in King George's war the Second Parish, now Norwood, was rep- 
resented by five officers, besides the Rev. Mr. Balch, who was the 
chaplain of a company at the siege of Louisburg, and it is high- 
ly probable that the other parishes were represented, although 
no record can be found. In the final struggle between France 
and England for possessions in America, in what was called the 
French and Indian War, which lasted from 175410 1763, the 
Springfield Parish was well represented. It has been said that 
at this period one-third of all the able-bodied men of the prov- 
ince were in some v/ay engaged in the war. In accordance with 
the plan of Braddock's campaign, Crown Point, among other 
places, was to be attacked, and Lt. Daniel Whiting and Timothy 
Guy, from this Parish, took part in Capl. William Bacon's com 
pany in that engagement. Others were engaged at differen, 
times at Ticonderoga, Fort Edward, Fort William Henry, Lake 
George and Canada, as follows: Timothy Ellis, Lemuel Rich- 
ards, David Cleveland, whose father, George Cleveland, died in 
the service at Fort William Henry, Oct. 2, 1756, Thomas Larra- 
bee, Moses Richards and Nathan Whiting. When in 1763 peace 
had been established between France and England, these soldiers 
r,eturned to their homes to pursue the vocations of peace, which, 
however, they were not destined long to enjoy. I'he men whp 
had learned warfare in the French and Indian wars, weire 
among the first to take up arms against the mother land in 1775. 
No danger, no hardship, no suffering was too great for them to 
endure in defense of the principle of self government. Tp 
them life was of less value than a principle, the principle writ- 



ten by Cromwell on the statute books of Parliament : '* All 
just powers under God are derived from the consent of the peo- 
ple." While it was conceded that America should contribute to 
the public debt which had been contracted in the protection of 
the Colonists from the French and Indians, yet they proposed 
to pay it by grants from their own legislature, and in their own 
way. The tax upon the imports of the Colonists, in which they 
had no voice was repugnant to them, and as they believed, was 
a violation of Magna Charter, the foundation of English liberty. 

You know the service of our fathers at the Lexington 
Alarm,* which has been so often told. You remember how one 
young man — Elias Haven — left his home in the west part of the 
town, in the early hours of that eventful day, to give a day's 
work to a farmer two miles away. He went perchance, with- 
out bestowing a kiss upon his wife, or the children whom he had 
brought about his knees. He went out as he had gone a hun- 
dred times before, expecting to return to his- family when the 
day's work was done. At nine o'clock while working in the 
field, there came a messenger, and in response to the alarm, 
with sixty-tive others from this parish, he obeyed the call of 
duty. Standing beside his brother-in-law, Aaron Whiting, at a 
corner of the Meeting-House in Arlington, he was shoe down by 
a British musket ball, thus giving his life for the founding of a 
nation whose democratic principles we now enjoy. Think you 
if he were alive to-day, would he, like so many, "pay private 
debts with scrupulous honor, and pay political debts by deeds 
■of dishonor and disgrace ? " 

At the Battle of Bunker Hill, we have the names of seven- 
teen residents of the Parish, who under Capt. Daniel Whiting, 
took part in that engagement, being the only soldiers from the 
ancient town of Dednam who actually engaged in the battle. I 
am glad on this occasion to give for the first time the names of 
others, who learning of the battle on the morning of June 17th, 
hastened to Boston to render such service as they might. The 
list is as follows: t Samuel Farrington, Ezra Gay, Jonathan 

*See Narative History of Dover for a complete list of those who took 
part in the Revolution from the Springfield parish. 

tTaken from the muster roll of Capt. Aaron Guild of Dedham, now 
in possession ot George H. Plimpton of New York City. 



Whiting, Ebenezer Battle, Ebenezer Newell, Asa Mason, John 
Battle, Joseph Fisher, Jabez Baker, John Mason, Aaron Fair- 
banks, Moses Richards, David Cleveland, John Chickering,. 
Thaddeus Richards, Jeremiah Bacon, Joseph Fisher, Ebenezer 
Richards, Thomas Gardner, Nathan Metcalf, James Mann^ 
Ebenezer Battle, Jr., Jabez Whiting, Josiah Battle, Daniel 
Chickering, Jr., Elias Stlmson, and Moses Bacon. In the won- 
derful work of fortifying Dorchester Heights, as you well know, 
Capt. Ebenezer Battle, with forty-three others from this parish 
took part. In the years of warfare which followed, the Spring- 
field Parish soldiers did valiant service in New York State, in 
Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Rhode Island. At home they 
assisted in guarding Rurgoyne's Army after his surrender at 
Saratoga. They also rendered valuable service in guarding 
stores at different times and places in the vicinity of Boston. 

Through published works," and correspondence which has 
been made accessible in recent years, we have learned much of 
the service of Massachusetts soldiers in New York State, in 
which we have a lively interest, because in this work, Major 
Col. Daniel Whiting of this parish took no insignificant part. 
We learn through these records what he meant in his petition 
to the General Court, when he said : " I was in many perils in 
the Indian Country." At Cherry Valley in Eastern New York, 
there is a beautiful monument which has been erected in mem- 
ory of those who fell there in a fearful massacre Nov. ii, 1778. 
In the "Border Wars" against the Indians, Tories, and British 
soldiers. Col. Ichabod Alden of the Massachusetts Sixth Regi- 
ment had command of the fort at Cherry Valley. General 
Hand, who was in command at Albany, failed for some reason, 
to make adequate provision against an attack on this fort and 
town, although such an attack was strongly feared by the resi- 
dents. On Nov. 7th, a committee of citizens expressed great 
fear of an attack and added "to prevent which and to dispel 
our fears, let a sufficient number of troops be allowed us, and if 
possible those we now have under Col. Alden, as they are 
acquainted with our country, and the roads and haunts of our 

*The Old New York Frontier. 



»3 

enemies, so that by this means we maybe secure from slaughter 
and devastation." On Nov. 9th Col. Alden sent a scouting 
party of nine men down the valley. They soon met the ad- 
vancing invaders and were made prisioners. Two days later at 
noonday the attack was made and "gave the settlement a com- 
plete surprise notwithstanding all our endeavorsto the contrary," 
wrote Daniel Whiting. The officers of the regiment were stop- 
ping at the house of Robert Wells, and here was performed the 
most shocking incident connected with this massacre, the kill- 
ing of Mr. Wells and his family, consisting of nine members and 
three servants. Every one of the family except a son, who was 
away at school, was killed. The officers fled from liie Wells 
house as they saw the enemy approaching, but Col. Alden, wha 
tarried for a moment was killed on the road by a tomahawk, 
Daniel Whiting was so fortunate as to reach the fort in safety.- 
where he took command. Major Whiting wrote "h.id it not 
been for the great activity and alertness of the troops they had 
rushed within the line." 

From an account of the attack I have taken the following;, 
which gives a graphic picture of Indian warfare. " The enemy 
pushed vigorously for the fort, but our soldiers behaved with, 
great spirit and alertness, defending the fort and repulsing 
them after three hours and a half of smart engagement. The 
Indians went round the settlement, burned all the buildings* 
collected all the stock and drove most of it off, killing and 
capturing all the inhabitants, a few that hid in the woods ex- 
cepted, who have since got into the fort. .On the 12th, the 
Indiaus came on again and gave a shout for rushing on, but our 
cannon played on them and they soon gave way. On the 13th,. 
after the enemy had withdrawn. Major Whiting sent out part- 
ties to bring in the dead. Such a shocking sight of savage and 
brutal barbarity they had never before beheld, to see a husband 
mourning over his dead wife, with four dead children lying by 
her side, mangled, scalped and some with heads, some with legs 
and arms cut off, and others with the flesh torn off their bones 
by dogs, was a sight which met their eyes. On November isth 
some provisions arrived, being as it is recorded, the first supply 



X4 

after the first attack, when we had not a pound of brea^ )for th? 
men in the garrison for four or five days and a trifle only of 
meat." 

After the massacre at Cherry Valley the Indians celebrated 
their victory, an account of which was related by Mrs. Camp- 
bell, who was a terrified witness of the scene. "After a gran^ 
council the warriors gathered around a great fire, each with his 
face and parts of his body painted in black and white to a 
hideous extent. Songs were sung in praise of their exploits 
and those of their ancestors. By degrees they worked them- 
selves up into a tempest of passion, whooping, yelling and 
uttering every hideous cry, brandishing their knives and war 
clubs and throwing themselves into the most menacious attitudes 
in a manner terrifying to the unprotected beholder. Meanwhile 
the prisioners were paraded, and the scalps born in triumph, 
and for every scalp was uttered the scalp yell, or death halloo, 
the most terrific note which an Indian can raise. The feast 
closed with the killing of a white dog, the burning of entrials, 
the roasting of the carcass, and the eating of the same," The 
battle at Newtowne, New York, in 1779 is coming to be recog- 
nized as one of the decisive battles of the Revolution. In this 
memorable battle, Major Daniel Whiting commanded a part of 
the garrison under Brig. Gen. Enoch Poor, which consisted of 
the Massachusetts 6th Regiment. It was the plan of the Brit- 
ish to separate New England from the rest of the colonies, to 
blockade the coast and keep the Tories and the Indians active 
on the frontier, and so crush out the Continental Army. The 
Iriquois dominated an extensive territory in New York, and 
could call ten thousand fighting men into the field. They culti- 
Tated enormous fields of corn and vegetables, with fruitful orch- 
ards. These supplies soon found their way to the British 
Army, In 1779, Gen. Sullivan was appointed by Washington, 
to break the power of Indian allies of the British, and assigned to 
him a third of the Continenta lArmy with which to do the work. 
The Indian towns were to be utterly destroyed, their fields and 
crops devastated, and the whole region made uninhabitable by 
them. A fortification was built by the Indians at Newtown, 
.3iear Elmira, where it was believed Sullivan's Army would pass. 



IS 

It was strongly fortified, but under the command of Gen. Sulli- 
van it was captured and the Indians and Tories routed. In 
this important work, as already mentioned, Major Daniel 
Whiting had a prominent part. The American Army left a 
desolate wilderness behind them, having destroyed forty 
Indian villages, and 200,000 bushels of corn, many vegetables 
and fruit-bearing orchards. The Iriquois turned from their 
blackened villages and sought the vicinity of Niagara, where 
they lived in huts, and during the long winter which followed, 
died by hundreds of pestilence. Capt. Reid of the American 
forces built a fort near Elmira and here on the 29th of Septem- 
ber, 1779, the different attachments met. Salutes with cannon 
and musketry were fired, and barbecues were held with much 
rejoicing. On the 3d of October, the Army was discharged and 
the soldiers marched home. After all the danger, privation, 
sacrifice and suffering which he had endured, when returning 
from the army, Daniel Whiting, was obliged to borrow money 
at West Point to defray his expenses home, a debt which he 
was unable to repay for many years owing to the failure of the 
state to pay him back the money which he had loaned her in 
her distress. We cannot emphasize too strongly the courage 
and valor of the fathers, who as scattered colonists successfully 
fought an empire. 

In the second war with Great Britain our fathers took no 
prominent part. The war was unpopular in New England, as 
the people did not feel that like the Revolution, " It was the 
lofty cause which demanded the lofty sacrifice '". Ebenezer 
Wilkinson, George Fisher, Daniel Fuller and Fisher Ayres were 
engaged in the service. Harvey Ambler, although only a boy, 
went in 1812 to Fort Warren, in Boston Harbor, and served for 
nine days, representing Capt. George Fisher, who drew pay for 
his services during the time. Alexander Soule, who spent a 
long life here, was in the war of 181 2, having enlisted into the 
service from the state of Maine. 

In the iniquitous war with Mexico in 1846 no resident of 
the town had a part. General Grant declared " it one of the 
most unjust wars ever wageby a stronger against a weaker 
people ". 



i6 

The life of our Colonial fathers in this new country, sur- 
Trounded by hostile Indians, developed in them remarkable skill 
with firearms. The boy as soon as he was old enough to handle 
.a musket was given powder and balls, not to waste in idle 
amusement, but to be used in shooting squirrels. After practice, 
lie was required to bring home a certain number of squirrels, as 
a charge for the use of the musket, and sad indeed was it for 
the boy who failed to bring in the stipulated number. At the 
age of twelve the boy became a garrison soldier, and if there 
was a 12 year old boy in the families, in connection with George 
Fairbank's garrison, which I have described, he had a loop-hole 
assigned him from which to shoot when the garrison was at- 
tacked by the Indians. Growing older the boy became a hun- 
ter of deer, wolves, bears and other wild animals, and had to 
hold himself in readiness to fight hostile Indians at any moment. 
As the settlers in this pioneer life learned to handle the gun, 
and were thus fitted to carry on the Revolution, so in the war 
with Mexico, most of the great commanders in the civil war had 
their first experience in military operations, and learned what 
war meant. 

You veterans of the Civil War,* who fought that justice 
and human rights should not perish from the earth forever, you, 
who were appointed to see that for " every drop of blood drawn 
by the lash another should be drawn by the sword ", remember 
that through the providence of God, you were but instruments 
in the evolution of a nation. You do not stand alone in this 
noble work, but as members of a mighty company who have 
fought since the Pilgrims first set foot upon these shores, for the 
protection of the home, the crown, the republic, and finally for 
Jiuman liberty. Yours was the greater sacrifice because you 
lived under a higher civilization, with loftier ideals and greater 
comforts. "The feeling for the righteousness of the cause," as 
it has been said, " has made the volunteer the mighty soldier he 
iias always been since the days of Naseby and Marston Moor". 
From that April morning in 1861, when Fort Sumter was fired 
upon, and President Lincoln called for 75,000 troops for three 

*See Narative History of Dover for complete list of soldiers who ser- 
ved in the Civil War. 



'7 

months, to Appomattox Court House, where Lee's gallant army 
surrendered on April 9, 1865, j'ours was a noble sacrifice. In 
later years some of your sotis have been members of this noble 
army, for when Congress declared war against Spain, April 21, 
1898, Richard C. Spear and William E. Boundford volunteered 
in a service, which under the Providence of God, was to put a 
stop to the shocking oppression of Spain in her treatment of 
the colonies of Cuba and Porto Rico, In the Aronderful evolu- 
tion of this nation the sons of the soldiers of the north, with 
the sons of the soldiers of the south, now sleep side by side on 
the shores of the Luzon. 

In this connection let me refer to a condition which ex- 
isted at the breaking out of a civil war to which reference is sel- 
dom made. At the beginning of the rebellion many men and 
women were narrow and intolerant, party lines were closely 
■draw^n, and individuals were spying round for evidence of sym- 
pathy with the south. I recall a schoolmate who raised on his 
father's farm a flag which had been made by his aunt. Be- 
cause it did not conform in ail respects to the standard of the 
stars and the stripes, it was hauled down by a party from 
Natick and carried away as a rebel flag. Near the foot of one 
street, were several farmers who were democrats. Some neigh- 
bors, with more zeal than sense, erected a board On this street 
lA^hich bore the inscription "Copperhead Street," while another 
road in the vicinity bore the name " Rebel Lane." But as the 
days went on, men and women grew fast under the nation's 
trouble and sorrow, and these petty annoyances disappeared. 
Personal gossip ceased, as men and women anxiously waited to 
get the latest news from the seat of war. Men learned to bear 
one another's burdens, when they saw the sacred sorrows of 
wives and mothers and the pangs of husbands and fathers. 
Many will recall that sad day in 1862 when the body of John M. 
Brown, who was your first soldier to die in the service, was 
brought back and carried into the old meeting-house, when the 
last sad rites were said over that closed casket. As time went 
on men anrl women outgrew the narrow lines and had new 
hopes, ne.v tears, and new purposes. In this brief account of 
the deed.N c,\ our fathers, it may seem that they saw a great deal 



i8 

of war, but this is not so when compared with the history of the 
world. It has been shown that from the year 1696 B. C. to the 
year 1861 A. D., that in a cycle of 3357 years, there were but 
227 years of peace and 3130 years of war; in other words, there 
Were 13 years of war for every year of peace. 

Although two foreign nations are now engaged in war, we 
may confidentially believe , that war will soon pass away, not 
because all will have become lovers of peace, but because mod- 
ern warfare is so destructive to life and property. In this year 
of the meeting of the Peace Congress of the World in Boston, 
we may remember with pleasure that two years after its organi- 
zation, 181 7, the name of Rev. Dr. Ralph Sanger of Dover 
appears as a member of the Massachusetts Peace Society, which 
was the first influential peace society formed in the world, a 
society of which Thomas Jefferson became an honorary member 
almost immediately upon its founding. From the hour of its 
organization to the present time it has been the most efficient 
means of education in this cause which the world has had. 
You are honored in having a town minister, who was a pioneer 
in a cause which has enlisted the noblest spirits of the age. 

In the period of time covered by this address, our fathers 
saw a colony transformed into a province, a province made into 
a state, and a state united with other states to form a great 
nation. Our fathers were always found on the side of the 
people, rather than on the side of the King. They joined 
forces with the patriots, and not with the Tories. They fought 
for the cause of the union, and not for the cause of disunion 
and secession, and they upheld the national honor in the war 
with Spain. They have lived and fought under every flag, or 
standard which has here been unfurled to the breeze, from the 
simple red cross of Old England, to the present stars and 
stripes of the United States, the grandest flag of them all, 
which it is our privilege to honor, love and defend. Although 
in the providence of God, war, as we believe, is passing away, 
yet there are still moral battles to be won. We still need the 
hot passion, which in the days before the civil war, set the 
nation afire. " Eloquence " Emerson said " was dirt cheap in 
the abolution meetings." We still need, as it has been so often 



19 

said, the passion of the New England town meeting in the years 
preceding the Revolution, that we may meet and smite the 
wrongs which threaten the perpetuity of the republic. We 
need to be as watchful to-day of insidious foes of the home, as 
our fathers were of Indian attacks. In commemorating the 
deeds, and in perpetuating the spirit of the colonial and Rev- 
olutionary days, as well as the spirit of "6i" and "98," we still 
need like our fathers, to be willing to sacrifice everything for a 
righteous principle. 



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